Margaret Daley - Lone Star Christmas Rescue

“Yes, where’s the woman in room 236? I called its number, and no one answered.”

“I don’t know. Maybe having some tests done? Who is this?”

“Texas Ranger Jackson, the man who found the patient.”

“Are you coming here?”

“Yes. I’m about an hour away.”

“Good. Rosa hopefully should be here, and you can talk to her. She’s been dealing with the patient in 236.”

“About what?” Frustration tangled with a foreboding feeling.

“I can’t reveal any information over the phone.”

Drake gave the woman his cell phone number. “Have Rosa call me as soon as possible.”

After he hung up, he put his lights and siren on and floored the accelerator. He entered another dead zone that would last most of the way to Cactus Grove.

When he arrived at the hospital, he quickly parked and hurried into the building. He checked his cell phone. Only a message from the El Paso headquarters was new. Nothing from Kay or the head nurse. The elevator doors swished open on the second floor, and his attention zeroed in on the police officer going into Kay’s room.

Heart thumping against his rib cage, Drake quickened his pace, and when he entered 236, he came to an abrupt halt. Her bed was empty, with two police officers standing around it talking.

“Did something happen? Where is Kay?” Drake interrupted.

Officer Emert, whom he’d worked with before, faced Drake. “She’s gone. And so is the baby.”

THREE

After seeing Kay making her escape on the camera footage of the hallways in the hospital, Drake paced the small security office, wondering what had caused her to flee with the baby. The brief expression he’d glimpsed on her face as she’d sneaked out of her room was one of fear. Had someone frightened her? Had she remembered something about what happened to her? “I need the footage of the second-floor hallway for the few hours before she left.”

“Just a sec,” the security guard said and punched some keys. “Here it is.”

Drake stopped and faced the monitor. When a large man barged into the room without knocking, Drake leaned closer to the screen, counting down how long he remained inside. Rosa and an orderly hurried toward the room. The head nurse paused at the entrance and then entered, leaving the orderly in the corridor. Not long after that, the man left 236 but didn’t go far. He slipped inside a storage room a few doors away from Kay. Again, Drake noted the time stamp until the guy reappeared in the hallway and went toward the elevator. What did he do in there for twenty minutes?

The only person who might shed light on the man was Rosa. “Thanks. I need you to send me a photo of the man who came out of the storage room. Also, a picture of Kay leaving her room. Send it here.” Drake gave the security guard a card with his cell number and email address. “Keep this footage until I say otherwise.”

“Yes, sir.”

Drake knew Rosa had left work about an hour ago. Earlier she’d told Officer Emert that she hadn’t seen Kay leave with the baby, and from the footage that appeared correct. But she hadn’t said anything about that man visiting Kay’s room earlier. Maybe the nurse could tell him what she’d seen.

First, Drake stopped at the storage room and went inside. He examined what was really only a large walk-in closet for evidence the guy from the tape might have left behind. Everything appeared in its correct place, so he took latent prints from the inside doorknob, then headed downstairs to the main office to get Rosa’s home phone number and address. He was glad she didn’t live very far from the hospital.

Soon he pulled up in front of the head nurse’s ranch-style house and parked in the driveway. The bright Christmas lights around the front welcomed him as he rang the bell.

A teenage boy opened the door with earbuds stuck in his ears, the sound of a current popular song loud enough for Drake to hear.

“Is your mom home?”

“What?” the kid shouted.

The teen was in his own world. He hadn’t even bothered to look at Drake other than a brief glance when he answered the door. Drake pulled out his credentials and waved them in the boy’s line of vision. “I need to see Rosa Martinez.”

Eyes wide, the adolescent yelled, “Mom, the police are here.” He remained in the entrance to the house.

Rosa hurried from the back, waving her hand at her son. “Thanks, Samuel. You still haven’t shown me your English paper. It’s due tomorrow.”

The teen stepped back from the entryway and removed his earbuds, his attention now glued to Drake.

“I need to talk to you about Kay,” Drake said to Rosa.

“I’m sorry I had to leave, but I had to pick up Samuel from the school library. I don’t know what happened. I went into her room to take Kaleb back to the children’s wing. She and the baby were gone. I notified security, and then an emergency took most of my time after that.”

Samuel still hung around, moving slowly toward the hallway.

Kaleb? Had Kay remembered the baby’s name? “Can we talk in private?” Drake asked, remembering the times he would do anything to get out of writing a paper for school.

“Sure. The kitchen should be private enough.” Rosa sent a glare in her son’s direction. He left quickly.

“Is he your only child?”

“Yes, how can you tell?”

“Too quiet here.” Drake followed Rosa to the kitchen. “I have a sister near my age who has four children. She lives in Houston. When I visit, the house is always noisy, except when they’re all asleep.”

“You don’t have any children?” Rosa gestured at the table while she walked to the counter and filled a mug. “Do you want some coffee?”

“Sounds good.” As Rosa handed him a cup and sat, Drake joined her. “I’m not married. I was once.”

“What happened?”

“She was killed in the line of duty. She was a highway patrol officer like I was before I became a Texas Ranger. She stopped a truck driving too fast. The driver shot her.”

Rosa took a long drink. “I’m so sorry. Did they catch the killer?”

“Yes, he’d been transporting illegal immigrants.” Another reason Drake had wanted to be on the human trafficking task force besides the suspicion about what happened to his younger sister.

“Being a police officer is dangerous. I’m so glad my husband has a boring job reading X-rays. He’s a radiologist and should be home from El Paso soon.”

As he took several sips, Drake relished the coffee. “I know you talked with the two officers in Kay’s room, and they passed on what you told them, but I’m here about an incident that happened a couple of hours before you discovered Kay was gone.”

Rosa’s forehead puckered. “Incident?” She paused, then said, “Oh, you mean the stranger who came into her room looking for another patient.”

“Yes, he was about six feet with dark hair.” Drake clicked on the photo the security guard had sent him and showed his cell phone to Rosa.

She nodded. “He was looking for an Amy Grafton. We didn’t have a patient on my floor by that name. Later I found there was a patient called that, but on the third floor in room 336—an older woman who was being discharged. He probably wrote down the wrong number.”

“You didn’t see him after that?”

“No. Why?”

“Because on the security tape, that man left Kay’s and went a couple of doors down into a storage closet. He stayed there for twenty minutes, then left.”

“That’s strange.”

“I agree. I’ll check with Amy Grafton to see if she knows this man.”

“If she doesn’t, do you think he took Kay and the baby?”

“Kay left with the child. The man had already disappeared, but something doesn’t feel right.” Why hide in a storage closet for twenty minutes? Drake sighed. “I won’t take up any more of your time. You’ve put in a long day.” He rose.